Shaun of the Dead Review

Ah. The perfect date movie. A boy, a girl, stymied love and wave upon wave of the undead. Huh? Welcome to Shaun of the Dead, the romantic zombie comedy from the creators of cult classic britcom Spaced. After drawing rave reviews in his native Britain and making vocal converts of the likes of Peter Jackson, Guillermo Del Toro and George Romero, Shaun finally hits local shores on Friday. Is it as good as the advance hype? Put it this way: Shaun of the Dead is to this decade what Sam Raimi's Evil Dead / Army of Darkness films were to theirs. Shaun is an instant classic, the sort of film that will define geek culture for years. Yeah, it's that good.

Simon Pegg stars as Shaun, a thirty something Brit stuck in a dead end job selling home electronics. His life is bland and repetitive, revolving around the local pub, his boorish pot dealing best friend Ed, and his girlfriend Liz, in pretty much that order. His life is bland, yes, but comfortable. Until Liz dumps him. And then, while nursing a post-breakup hangover, the city is over-run by zombies. Shaun's response? With Ed in tow go pick up mum, then over to Liz's and whisk everybody off to the safety of ... the local pub.

So what makes it work? First, the characters. Every one of them is superbly written, flawlessly cast, and utterly believable. Though most are not well known here this is a seasoned cast of dead solid comedy performers. Beyond the Spaced carryovers britcom fans will recognize key faces from Black Books and The Office with cameos from members of The League of Gentlemen and Little Britain. Second, the film's unique fusion of comedy and horror elements. Where most horror comedies rely on pervasive irony - the constant nodding and winking at horror genre rules - Shaun plays it remarkably straight. The horror elements are genuinely shocking - you correctly get the sense very early on that absolutely nobody is safe - with the comedy coming from the characters' confused and generally inept responses. Shaun and Ed's first interaction with a zombie - a young woman they mistakenly, but understandably, believe is simply very, very drunk - is a classic piece of film.

By keeping the film so strongly character based director / co-writer Edgar Wright is able to take his audience on a fantastic ride. We buy the situation effortlessly and he’s able to swing from the truly horrific to the hilarious and we’re quite happy to tag along no matter what. Simon Pegg (Shaun) and Nick Frost (Ed) actually lived as room mates for a stretch when Pegg was just starting out in comedy and prior to Frost’s even considering a move that way – Frost’s part in Spaced was his first piece of show biz work, written for him by Pegg purely because Simon thought (correctly) that he was naturally hilarious – and their shared history transfers into an effortlessly natural relationship between Shaun and Ed that underscores and anchors the entire film.

Shaun of the Dead knows and respects the genre enough to have been blessed by George Romero himself while also giving the zombie film a distinctly British spin. There are references to other films sprinkled throughout – fans of Dawn of the Dead, Evil Dead and 28 Days Later will be chuckling to themselves throughout – but always layered in so subtly that those in the know will get a good laugh from them while those who don’t know the genre will never feel that they’re missing something, a difficult feat to pull off.

In short, Shaun of the Dead is an instant classic; immediately quotable and the sort of film fans will see over and over. It stands easily with the likes of Peter Jackson’s Braindead, Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead and Romero’s Dead films as one of the best of the type ever made. So go see it as soon as humanly possible. And remember – go for the head. Destroy the brain.